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Rail News - september 2012

AAR Updates

Elections for the AAR Associate Advisory Board to begin September 17

Annual elections for Associate Advisory Board members and nominations candidates for AAR committees will begin later this month and run through early December. We invite and encourage all associate member companies to participate in this process. Here is a brief walkthrough of the election process:

Associate Advisory Board Elections(September & October)

The Associate Advisory Board is twelve-member board which serves as a formal structure for the representation of the views of associate members within the AAR and appoints associate members to serve on AAR committees. Associate Advisory Board members are voted on by all gold and silver associate member companies. Only gold member companies are eligible to be elected to serve. Companies are elected to three-year terms.

The 2012 Associate Advisory Board is comprised of these twelve gold member companies:

The four open seats in this election cycle are the seats held by HDR Engineering, Inc., Progress Rail,Trinity Industries Leasing Company, & Union Tank Car Company. Both Union Tank Car Company & HDR Engineering, Inc. will have met their term limits by serving out two consecutive three-year terms on the Board and will not eligible for election to the AAB this year. (They will be eligible again next year.)

The elections for these four seats will take place in two rounds:

Round 1 – Elections by Category (September)

In the first round of AAB elections, each of the three member company categories will elect one gold member company from within their own category to serve on the AAB. The three categories are “Car Owner & Lessor,” “Mechanical & Rolling Stock Manufacturer,” and “Track, Bridge, Signal & Engineering”

Please reference the included document (below) to view the breakdown of member companies by category. Category placement is determined by the preference that companies indicate on their membership renewal or application forms and is subject to AAR review.

The primary contact person for each gold and silver member company will receive printable ballots by e-mail. In this round, members will only receive the ballot that applies to their company’s category. Gold and silver members will need to make their selection and return their ballot before the established deadline. Once the deadline passes, the votes will be counted and the winners will be announced.

At the end of this round, three of four open seats on the AAB will be filled.

Round 2 – At-large Seat (October)

Voting for the final seat will begin after conclusion of the first round. All remaining eligible gold member companies from all categories will be placed on a single ballot for the remaining “At-large” seat.

The primary contact person for each gold and silver member company will receive a printable ballot by e-mail. Gold and silver members will need to make their selection and return their ballot before the established deadline. Once the deadline passes, the votes will be counted and the winner will be announced.

AAR Committee Nominations(November)

Starting in November, we will invite all gold member companies to submit qualified candidates for AAR committee seats reserved for associate members. These candidates will be reviewed and appointed to the open seats by the Associate Advisory Board at their meeting in early December. Those appointed members will serve as voting members of their AAR committees for two years and will be expected to produce regular reports on their committee’s activities for distribution to all associate members.

You can find information on your current associate member representatives on AAR committees by logging in to the members’ area of the AAR website.

More specific details about open seats and the nomination process will be distributed to the primary contact person for each gold member company in November. We will not be accepting nominations for any AAR committee seats before the official opening of nominations.

Timeline

Below is the estimated timeline of events in this election process. Dates may change if any runoff elections are required.

If you have any questions about this election process, please feel free to contact Kelly Donley at 202-639-2343 or kdonley@aar.org or Bill Pzedpelski at 202-639-2138.

New AAR Publication Released, Rail Transportation of Chemicals

The AAR Policy & Economics Department has released the latest edition of Rail Transportation of Chemicals Volume 16. This reportcontains current and past data on the U.S. chemical industry. The data contained in the report is mostly from 2011. Members can access and download PDF copies this publication at no additional charge by logging into the Members Area and following the link labeled "View Publications."

Updates from Committees

You can view the latest reports from key AAR committees submitted by your Associate Member representatives by logging in and visiting the “AAR Committees, Descriptions, and Minutes” section of the Members Area.

The Fall 2012 AAR Committee Meeting Schedule is posted in the Members Area under the “AAR Committees, Descriptions, and Minutes” section.

The following reports were submitted to the AAR in the month of August. These reports will be posted to the Members Area as they become available:

Monthly Traffic Report

AAR Reports Mixed Rail Traffic for August

Weekly Rail Traffic Mixed

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sept. 6, 2012 – The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail carloads originated in August 2012 totaled 1,461,680, down 1.4 percent compared with August 2011. Intermodal traffic in August 2012 totaled 1,230,992 containers and trailers, up 51,145 units or 4.3 percent compared with August 2011. The August 2012 average weekly intermodal volume of 246,198 units is the second highest average for any August on record. Detailed monthly data charts and tables will be available in the AAR’s Rail Time Indicators report released online tomorrow.

Commodity groups that saw carload gains in August 2012 compared with August 2011 included: petroleum and petroleum products, up 49 percent or 18,007 carloads; motor vehicles and parts, up 13 percent or 8,966 carloads; and crushed stone, sand, and gravel, up 7.3 percent or 6,905 carloads.

Commodities with carload declines in August 2012 were led by coal, down 7.3 percent or 48,493 carloads; metallic ores, down 18.7 percent or 8,757 carloads; and waste and nonferrous scrap, down 15 percent or 2,652 carloads.

Carloads excluding coal were up 3.3 percent or 27,443 carloads in August 2012 compared with August 2011. Carloads excluding coal and grain were up 3.5 percent or 25,889 carloads in August 2012 compared with August 2011.

As of September 1, 2012, 311,226 freight cars were in storage, a decrease of 3,745 cars from August 1, 2012, and equal to 20.3 percent of the North American fleet.

“U.S rail traffic in August was pretty much same song, different verse,” said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. “Weakness in coal carloadings was largely but not entirely offset by increases in carloads of petroleum and petroleum products, autos, lumber, and several other commodities, with intermodal showing continued strength.”

AAR today also announced mixed weekly rail traffic for the week ending September 1, 2012, with U.S. railroads originating 292,732 carloads, down 3.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 249,113 trailers and containers, up 6.5 percent compared with the same week last year.

Ten of the 20 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2011, with petroleum products, up 44.1 percent; farm products excluding grain, up 22 percent, and lumber and wood products, up 20.7 percent. The groups showing a decrease in weekly traffic included metallic ores, down 17.2 percent, and waste and nonferrous scrap, down 16.6 percent.

Weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was down 7.1 percent compared with the same week last year. In the West, weekly carload volume was down 1.1 percent compared with the same week in 2011.

For the first 35 weeks of 2012, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 9,890,231 carloads, down 2.4 percent from the same point last year, and 8,226,793 trailers and containers, up 3.7 percent from last year.

Canadian railroads reported 79,510 carloads for the week, up .1 percent compared with the same week last year, and 54,839 trailers and containers, up 3.9 percent compared with 2011. For the first 35 weeks of 2012, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,683,533 carloads, up 2.8 percent from the same point last year, and 1,788,902 trailers and containers, up 6.9 percent from last year.

Mexican railroads reported 14,722 carloads for the week, up 2.3 percent compared with the same week last year, and 11,230 trailers and containers, up 12.6 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 35 weeks of 2012 is 499,977 carloads, down .5 percent compared with the same point last year, and 338,901 trailers and containers, up 18.5 percent from last year.

Combined North American rail volume for the first 35 weeks of 2012 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 13,073,741 carloads, down 1.3 percent compared with the same point last year, and 10,354,596 trailers and containers, up 4.7 percent compared with last year.

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